SOHFIT’s founder Sohrab Khushrushahi on working out for wellness, not weight loss

The fitness coach and enthusiast describes his teaching and training philosophies, and maintains that they’re so much more than just a number on a scale

Ask most people in your circles in Mumbai, and they’ll tell you they’ve tried (or know someone who has!) a SOHFIT Challenge. “I’m on SOHFIT so I’ll eat at home and come out,” said one friend to me last week. “I have a SOHFIT workout, so I’ll have to skip the movie,” said another. They’re referring to a 30- or 40-day challenge that includes grueling workouts and a super clean diet—the aim is to attempt to kickstart or supercharge your fitness journey, at whatever stage you’re at. The man behind it is Sohrab Khushrushahi—a lawyer-turned-fitness entrepreneur who counts celebrities like Alia Bhatt and Kiara Advani amongst his ardent clients.

But what’s different about his challenges and his approach? The focus, he says, is not on weight loss—it’s on overall wellness. In a world that is so focused on tangible results, how does Khushrushahi get his clients to focus on the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise? Read on to find out.

You had a superpowered law career that was just on the up and up. Why did you choose to change that path and get into fitness?

I've always been passionate about fitness and sports, specifically cricket. I think I am the person I am today because I was exposed to sports at a very young age and I know how to work in a team and get along with other people. This, I think, is an important life lesson that only playing a sport can teach you. Since I wanted to get there, fitness was just something I needed to complement my sport.

I wanted to get into the fitness space for a long time—for almost 10 years. A couple of years before I started SOHFIT, I remember sitting down with my friends and telling them about my idea. They all said that I had to do what I was good at, and that I was a good lawyer, so I should focus on that. They said I needed to make money and support my family because I didn’t have a ready-made business to fall back on. At that time, I chickened out. But I kept thinking about it.

After a point, I wasn’t happy being a lawyer. It was getting to me on a mental and emotional level. I wasn’t myself anymore and just didn’t enjoy getting up every day and going to work. It made me really unhappy. My wife Daneesh and I had a conversation and she said that she didn’t want me to spend my life thinking I didn’t try. Once I did, I didn’t look back.

What is your approach to fitness now, as compared to when you first started?

I actually suffered from depression, and the only thing that helped me [deal with it] was training. For me, fitness has never been about aesthetics. It will always be a way of life. It’s not a one-month fix, and it can’t be about training for a wedding or a beach holiday. The toughest thing we go through on a daily basis is life itself, so we need to train for it. I want fitness to be so simple that you want to get up and do it every morning. It has to be a part of your life, like brushing your teeth.

For so many people, a workout routine can feel like therapy. What do you tell your clients about this connection between fitness and mental health?

Fitness has helped me through the toughest times in my life. I suffered mentally when I wasn’t happy at my job and I wasn’t happy with the way my life was going. The only thing I looked forward to then was getting up in the morning and training because it gave me great mental satisfaction. Working out releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine in your system. It is a good, slow release and makes you feel better than short-term, quick fixes.

Fitness is so much more about feeling good and being well rather than a number on the scale. How do you convey that to your clients, especially since most fitness challenges are geared toward "weight loss" directly?

You change the narrative. I don’t ask them how much they weigh and I’ve never asked them that. Sometimes the people I train get upset that I don’t use that parameter, but I find it more important to talk about whether they can lift better, run better and what their glucose level is like. These are the things I am interested in.

The thing with the number on the scale is that it’ll always fluctuate and you may lose motivation sometimes if it goes up. But there may be several reasons for it, such as stress or what you ate the previous night. It’s not fair to let your happiness revolve around that one number. Unfortunately, the world we live in has always rotated and marketed around weight, aesthetics and the way you look. I think it’s time to change that.

What is the importance of finding a fitness community? Why do you try to build that with SOHFIT?

People respond to people. People are more accountable when someone else is involved as opposed to when they’re doing it on their own. We are social animals and the more we interact and find like-minded people who are working towards the same goal, the more we’re likely to stick with it. The biggest problem regarding fitness, which even I faced, was that everyone always makes fun of you by saying what’s the big deal, why do you have to be so fit, why can’t you eat cake or drink a glass of wine with us. But it’s not about that; you need people who will encourage you.

You only have a certain amount of willpower and if you’re going to try to use it just to say no to people all the time, it’s very difficult to survive. For me, it was about creating a community of people that think similarly, help each other out, provide the positive reinforcement that people need, and who would walk with you through both good times and bad.

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